With five words -- "The antisocial has become social" -- the Los Angeles Lakers guard sent the first tweet from his account Friday. About 270,000 people followed his verified account, @kobebryant, within a few hours.

Bryant tiptoed into the Twitterverse last week when he briefly took over Nike basketball's account, when he sent out things like a photo of him hanging out with his daughter, an ice bath that he was dreading and even a suit he was wearing to a particular game.

Bryant says those few days made him consider starting his own account, saying he enjoyed connecting with fans "with no filters."

Heat star LeBron James has 6.8 million followers, the most of any NBA player.